Monday, January 7, 2013

CD Review-What We Saw From the Cheap Seats

REVIEW: WHAT WE SAW
FROM THE CHEAP SEATS by Regina Spektor

OVERALL SCORE: 7.5/10

What We
Saw From the Cheap Seats is singer/songwriter Regina Spektor’s most recent
album was released on May 29, 2012. The album overall has a more poppy feel
than her previous albums, but still has the typical Regina style.

The
album opens with “Small Town Moon”. This song, I feel, sets a certain tone
forthe rest of the album, the softer
and more gentle verses being interrupted with a slightly harsher sounding
chorus giving the song a sort of tension and energy, This is followed by the
strange “Oh Marcello”, whose lyrics I cannot make heads or tails of. I think it
might be about Hitler’s mom, but I’m not entirely sure. It also includes the
hook from a Nina Simon song, and part of me wonders if the whole song was
created as an excuse for that hook. We then come to the rather tropical
feeling, but otherwise unremarkable song “Ne Me Quitte Pas”, which is actually
a newer version of the one found on her album “Songs”.The lyrics and tune are kind of catchy, but
the song just feels pretty plain to me.“Firewood”
“Patron Saint” and “How” are all rather typical from what you expect from
Spektor. Then we come to “All the Rowboats”

This
song actually gives me goosebumps. The lyrics and the feel of the song is kind
of dark in of themselves, lamenting the fact that beautiful art never gets to
be appreciated or used by people, but rather just gets stuck in stuffy museums.
The price of greatness comes out to be a life of eventual boredom and
stagnation which one might not have to face if they hadn’t achieved such
greatness. The person is lost behind their art, they don’t become a person, but
rather become an art piece. That being said, ole Regina got a little carried
away with the percussion instruments and making explodey noises with her mouth
in this one, so the ending of the songs falls a tad. . .flat, because of that.

“Ballad
of a Politician” is another example of Regina displaying her quirkiness that
made me fall in love with her music.“Open”
is another haunting song, and easily my favorite on the album. “The Party” and “Jessica”
overall are not good ways to end the album. Both are a sudden departure from
the previous songs which we were hearing and are kind of unremarkable in a way.

Now
looking at the album in a whole, it is definitely going to be a lot more accessible
to mainstream listeners. It only has a couple of quirky songs on it, but the
majority of it seems a little too “poppy” for my liking. Nothing as bad as
Ke$ha or Minaj (both of which I find laughable excuses for musicians) but the
influence is there. The album has a slightly less varied “feeling” to it than
previous albums like “Songs” or “Far”, but this doesn’t detract overall. I was
slightly disappointed, but it is definitely worth adding to your collection,
and might be a good introduction to Regina for the standard Pop listener.